Alright! Here is my first entry into Naegiri Week 2016! Strap yourselves in cause it's an angsty one. Don't worry though, I promise the rest of these will be super-mega-ultra-fluffy. Fair warning, they will also be kinda sexual in nature, although there will be nothing explicit, just lots of implied stuff and talking about it. Enjoy! This one is actually one of my favorite of the entries I wrote.

Also, these fics will tie-in to my other naegiri fic "Moving Forward", you don't really need to read that to get these but it might help. They take place in the same "canon" and some elements from it will be referenced here. I'll also be working on chapter 2 of that fic and try to get it up during Naegiri week.

Dream

Makoto Kirigiri's life was going pretty well, all things considered. Sure, the world was still recovering from the influence of despair, a lot of people were dead, many of whom he knew and liked, his role in the recent history of the world had made him a somewhat controversial figure, there were times when he woke up in the middle of the night screaming and had to be comforted by his wife, sometimes she woke up screaming and had to be comforted by him, and his workload as Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy was pretty big, but it wasn't all bad.

Not all of his friends were dead, he and his loved ones were together and relatively happy, the world was healing slowly, but it was definitely healing, and already the world of despair that they had lived in seemed like a thing of the past. His little sister was with him, safe and sound and happy, and although there were times when he didn't like his job, he was proud and happy to be the Headmaster of Hope's Peak. To top it all off, he was married to the most amazing, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful person he'd ever met, and they were happy together.

In some ways, it was like a dream come true. And sometimes that thought worried him.

One night he was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Kyoko Kirigiri sat up next to him, reading a book by the light of a lamp on her dresser as she often did before sleeping. Usually Makoto would be reading his own book or manga, or flipping through a magazine, or even playing video games on his handheld, but tonight was one of those nights, when the weight of everything he had lived through decided to come up for a visit and hit him all at once.

"Do you ever wonder if any of this is real?" he blurted out.

Next to him Kirigiri looked away from her book and looked at him with a mix of emotions ranging from surprise, confusion, curiosity and concern before returning to her neutral expression (which had changed from a stoic frown into a comfortable little smile since the start of their relationship, at least while she was alone with her husband).

"What do you mean?" she asked, putting her book down on the dresser before lying down and scooting closer to him.

Makoto hesitated for a moment before turning away from her, lying on his side. "It's nothing, sorry."

Kirigiri clicked her tongue. "Makoto…" she scolded.

"Really, I'm fine, you can just go back to reading," he said, although he didn't turn around to face her.

Unfortunately for him, Kyoko was relentless. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

"I know, really. I just don't want to talk about this…"

"That's rather odd considering you asked me about it."

Makoto shifted uncomfortably. "Kyoko, please, can you just drop it?"

She responded by placing her hand, her bare hand, on his shoulder. "Makoto, how many times have you insisted on helping me even when I asked you to drop it?" she asked, leaning in closer to him. "And every time you've gotten through, and it's always been for the better. Now let me help you. Because that's what we do; we help each other," she whispered tenderly.

Makoto stayed silent for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. "Do… do you ever feel like none of this is real? Like our entire life is just a dream?" he asked as he shifted over to lie on his back and gaze at her.

"Well, I'd imagine that everyone thinks like that from time to time, but this isn't just some philosophical musing, is it? What brought this on?"

"It's just…" he hesitated, taking a deep breath before continuing. "This all seems too good to be true sometimes."

Kyoko was about to respond when he continued before she could speak up.

"I just keep thinking that maybe I'm still back at the old headquarters, and maybe we couldn't stop the Hope Video, so now all of this is just some happy dream that my head made up to turn me into a mindless zombie, or maybe the Despair Video brainwashed me and right now I'm out there committing atrocities, or maybe...maybe," his breaths became more and more ragged as he spoke.

"Maybe I died and this is all just a hallucination before my mind shuts down, or maybe I died and this is my version of heaven, or maybe you died and I couldn't take it so I just shut down and locked myself in a world where you didn't," at this point his breathing had become choked, and he was starting to hyperventilate.

"Maybe I never even made it out of Hope's Peak the first time around, maybe this is all just another plan by Junko to make me fall into despair. Hope and Despair are always side-by-side, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop," he raised his arm to wipe away the tears that were forming. "I keep thinking that one day I'm going to wake up and you're not going to be here anymore."

Kyoko sighed sadly. This wasn't the first time that he had expressed such fears. He'd been worried that her survival was all a dream since they first reunited, so it was sad, but not surprising, to her that he still held such fears. So she decided to dispel them the same way she had before: by kissing him.

He stiffened in surprise at first, but he soon relaxed and kissed her back, holding on to her desperately, it wasn't long before she felt tears running down his face. When they broke apart, she embraced him and whispered soothingly into his ear. "I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. We both promised to live on together, and that's a promise I intend to keep. This isn't a dream, I swear."

Makoto buried his head in the crook of her neck, tightening his hold on her and letting out a choked sob. "That's not what scares me…"

She looked at him in confusion for a moment before he continued. "The worst part is that if this is a dream… then I don't want to wake up," he said as tears continued to pour down his face.

"I...I'm just so happy now; everything we fought for is finally coming true, and you're here with me. I don't want to go back to a world where I have to wonder if every day is going to be my last, or if I'm going to lose you, or someone else. I don't want to hear about the latest terrorist attack, or the next mission, or the sound of Monokuma's laughter, I just want to keep living like this."

Kyoko stroked his head affectionately. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be happy, Makoto…"

"But I'm supposed to be carrying the burden of Hope!" he sobbed. "How can I claim to be doing that if I'm only willing to do it when things are going right for me?! How can I call myself the Ultimate Hope if I'm not willing to give up my happiness for the world?"

He let out another choked sob before continuing. "Whenever I look at you I just… I just feel so happy. But then sometimes I feel guilty, like I don't deserve that happiness, and sometimes I feel like I need to wake up and face the real world. How can I call myself your husband if I couldn't choose you over the world?"

Kyoko took her face in his hands and placed their foreheads together, staring him in the eye to make sure that he understood everything she said. "Makoto, listen to me: you deserve to be happy. You've been through so much, we both have, and it's okay for you to be happy after everything you've suffered through, you don't need to feel guilty."

She paused for a second to gently brush away some of his tears with her thumbs, he stared at her mutely. "I know that if it came to it, you would sacrifice me for the rest of the world, but I don't hold it against you. That's just part of what makes you who you are; that's the man I fell in love with."

She smiled. "But the beautiful thing about it is that you don't have to make that choice. That's what we fought and suffered for: to create a world where we wouldn't have to, where no one would have to. You don't need to choose between a world where you're happy and a real world, because the world where you're happy is real." She removed her hands from her face to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him into a hug. "I promise you that none of this is a dream, or an illusion, or a hallucination. It may be shameful as a detective, but I don't have any evidence for you, all I can do is ask that you have faith in me, but I swear to you that this is real. So please, believe in me."

Makoto began to cry once again, tightening his grip on her as he sobbed into her shoulder. "Thank you… thank you," he said in between sobs.

They stayed like that for a few minutes. Eventually they separated once Makoto had calmed down. He reached up to dry the remaining tears on his face, and smiled at her. His eyes were red and puffy from crying, but he looked genuinely happy, and it made her smile, too.

"Are you feeling better now?" she asked.

"Yeah...I'm feeling better. Thank you for this, it really helped me to get this off my chest," he replied, sighing in relief.

"I'm glad. Remember, I'm always here for you if you need to talk to me about something like this," she said, caressing his hand.

"I know, thank you. The same goes for you, you can talk to me about anything," he said.

"I know, thank you Makoto. Now let's get some sleep," she answered before turning off the lights and settling into the bed, getting comfortable.

"Hey, Kyoko?" she heard in the darkness.

"Hm?"

"Promise me you'll be here when I wake up?" he asked shakily.

She grabbed his hand and held on tight, "I promise."

He let out a long sigh of relief. "Thank you. Good night, I love you."

She tightened her grip on his hand and leaned in to snuggle against him. "I love you too, good night, Makoto..."

"...and sweet dreams."

A message to the fandom: please let these poor children rest. They deserve to be happy.